cutting board.. sort of

I recently moved back “home” and inherited all of my fathers bench tools. I’ve been around them since I was very young, so I have a clue as to what I’m doing. I was looking to replace a cutting board my mother currently has. it covers the 2nd bowl of a double bowl sink. She has had this cover/cutting board for easily 30 years. I was hoping to replace it for an upcoming birthday. Seeing as I am actually an Executive Chef, I wouldn’t worry about the board itself if it was just a standard butchers block. However, it will only be approximately 1” to 1.25” thick and obviously made of hardwoods. Thinking maple/walnut. The sink is approximately 18”x22” I was curious if I would be better off using biscuits between the boards or just gluing..

Titebond III is great. For more complicated glueups use Titebond III EXTEND. It has a longer open time and is FDA approved although you won’t find that stated on their website for some reason, I called the company and as they said yes it is FDA approved. Walnut and maple are good woods for cutting boards, purple and maple also look good together. Do a cutting board search here and you’ll see 100s of examples. I would go with 1.5” for the thickness, the thicker the better so it remains stable and will resist warping. With good clamping and quality glue you won’t need biscuits. End grain is the best on your knives but you probably already know that. Good luck and post it when your done! Also welcome to lumberjocks!

Rather than biscuits, you might consider running splines the length of one side of your end grain cutting board. You could make the splines out of the same wood your board is made out of or out of a different wood for a really custom look. The splines, like the biscuits, will also help with alignment. Just a thought.